Recommend a good MIS

[sraper]

Hello I am working in a new private international school.

 

At present, as we are small, we are using good old excel and google Apps as our MIS

 

For September we are planning a big expansion - hopefully over 600 children (from Reception to Year 10) and therefore need a good system - especially for pupil registration, attendance etc. and ideally with behaviour management, assessments and reporting capabilities. A good timetabling module would be an added bonus.

 

I have used and managed SIMS in my previous 'life' in the UK - but unless it has changed dramatically in the last 2 years would be looking for something that can work with many different devices - think iOS and Android tablets. Ideally something that is accessibly by teachers when they go home - so if they choose to the can update assessments etc.

 

A few months ago I got a quote from Bromcom for their cloud hosted service - but after seeing some comments on the internet recently I am not sure if they are still 'alive'.

 

Suggestions welcome

Stuart

[jallsop]

Hi,

 

There are a number of options that use a browser based system for access on any device. 3sys (WCBS Pass), iSams to name but two. If your school is boarding, with things like laundry services etc, then whatever you choose needs to be able to either plug into these systems, or have its own way of managing them. Theres nothing worse than having 2 or 3 systems and trying to get them to work.

 

I'm in a similar position here, and we're just embarking on the MIS hunt, after using an internally developed web MIS for a few years. We're part of a larger group of schools, so we don't have total freedom to choose. 3Sys seems favourite for the group. We'll see.

[sraper]

Thankfully we are not a boarding school - but i have just realised there are two extra nice to have requirements:

 

1) Students financial accounts - tuition fees etc and how much they have made, when next payment due etc

2) Maintaining bus lists - with 600+ children we will be looking at 20 to 30 buses to manage

[jallsop]

2) Maintaining bus lists - with 600+ children we will be looking at 20 to 30 buses to manage

 

This can be managed, like duties for staff etc, as a 'lesson' within the timetabling module in most MIS systems. You just create an extra lesson at the end of the day, make it a vertical lesson, which makes it open for all students, and then populate as needed. This means all staff can have access etc.

 

J

[vikpaw]

I'd say Aspen but Fees management is still not fully fledged yet.

iSAMS, doublefirst , Pearson, ...

Have you seen the sticky thread about the dfe? Some good info and a list there.

Also, worth looking at Arbor

[StacyLarkin]

Hi Stuart,

 

Bromcom are very much alive - if they weren't, I'd be out of a job!

 

They also tick all the boxes of what you require.

[tombruton]

I'd say Aspen but Fees management is still not fully fledged yet.

iSAMS, doublefirst , Pearson, ...

Have you seen the sticky thread about the dfe? Some good info and a list there.

Also, worth looking at Arbor

 

Arbour's product does look interesting just never been able to see a working demo of it. I would look for references off other international schools as different providers have very different attitudes towards international schools. I work for ScholarPack and we are always happy to give out references, so you would hope other providers would be just as forthcoming.

[vikpaw]

Not seen a demo either, but loved the idea of plugging in a RasPi into existing system and seeing all the data fly into the cloud to create your personal product demo with your own info.

They are planning to go live with a number of institutions here in KSA this coming year from what i've heard.

[PhilNeal]

... and you would just plug it in and not worry about where that data ended up? Don't try this at home!

[vikpaw]

It's in the clouds how is that not safe?

[tombruton]

as far as I know they are not a SIMS partner so that would be impossible with their system and pretty much all other systems I have seen. You can get all this data out of sims but you need to get all the CTF's and do about 10 reports manually. There are a few MIS's that you could pretty much rip everything out of the database then import directly, however most schools will be coming from SIM's in my experience. Depending on school size this would also be very slow on a pie, mainly due to the number of database writes.

[vikpaw]

Wouldn't need to be a partner if all data is extracted via regular user level reports. Whether that's enough is another question. Like you say, some stuff is manual.

I'm actually shocked to hear that some suppliers still request CSV files and spreadsheets from the school to do the migration, but i guess that's the way it works.

[GREED]

I'm actually shocked to hear that some suppliers still request CSV files and spreadsheets from the school to do the migration, but i guess that's the way it works.

 

Agreed, or even worse say they can only use a CTF file and that is all they will migrate... School are not happy with that they want it all.

[Ketlane]

Thankfully we are not a boarding school - but i have just realised there are two extra nice to have requirements:

 

1) Students financial accounts - tuition fees etc and how much they have made, when next payment due etc

2) Maintaining bus lists - with 600+ children we will be looking at 20 to 30 buses to manage

 

SchoolBase is good on both of these.

[elsiegee40]

SchoolBase is good on both of these.

 

 

I agree. Schoolbase has what you are looking for and quite a number of international schools amongst it's clients. We are a UK independent using them for fees, etc

[Banjo]

Arbor does look interesting. I've heard that there are 13 Sims schools (Inf, Jnr, Primary & Sec) in one LA that are piloting/trialling the system. It would be good to hear feedback on how this goes.

[vikpaw]

I think the first trials happen now ish. But go live is for September.

We got a few colleges with September go live here.

[terryjones89]

Arbor does look interesting. I've heard that there are 13 Sims schools (Inf, Jnr, Primary & Sec) in one LA that are piloting/trialling the system. It would be good to hear feedback on how this goes.

 

Which LA is this? Last time I checked from the Census data they had 1 school in the UK.

[vikpaw]

Which LA is this? Last time I checked from the Census data they had 1 school in the UK.

Where can we check the census data? I'd be interested in looking at that.

[PhilNeal]

An FOI request. Probably can't do that from Jeddah!

[vikpaw]

An FOI request. Probably can't do that from Jeddah!

What if i plead nicely on a public forum for total disclosure from all MIS suppliers? How many apart from you would be willing to disclose numbers...?

We'd have to devise a clever logarithmic scale to make the results readable

[Ketlane]

SchoolBase publishes a list of its customer schools on its website.

[GREED]

I think if we were all in on that we would join in @vikpaw we have nothing to hide.

[scoggs]

Interesting forum. We are looking at getting SIMS for our small international school at the moment to replace the small database that is in place. I have had a look at Aspen and a few others and they are also interesting. Decisions....

[vikpaw]

@scoggs - If you need any help or advice, please get in touch. I'm probably in the right timezone, and if you do take it on, you can join our SIMS ME group.